United States: In Georgia, a man murdered an eight(8)-year-old girl and raped a 10-year-old in 1976. His scheduled execution was stopped on Tuesday following a decision of a judge on Monday to stay the execution.
The 68-year-old Virgil Delano Presnell Jr has abducted Lori Ann Smith, an 8-year-old and her 10-year-old friend, while they were walking home from elementary school in Cobb County 46 years ago.
He rapped the 10-year-old and drowned Smith in a creek when she tried to escape. The Police officials discovered him outside his apartment after the incident took place. He initially said so to the crime but eventually confessed, as well as led them to the girl’s body.
After he was convicted later that year as well as has sentenced to death on charges of the malice of murder, kidnapping and rape.
Moreover, his lawyer argued in a clemency petition that Presnell had severe brain damage, which was potentially caused by his mother’s drinking. At the same time, she was pregnant as well as did not know the harm he was causing the girls at the time of the attacks. His lawyers have also argued that he suffered sexual abuse in his family as a child.
The attorney Monet Brewerton-Palmer Monet Brewerton-Palmer mentioned in the clemency application submitted to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles that he is sorry for the pain he has caused and wishes he could “take it all back”.
Presnell has driven the girls to a wooded area & made them undress before raping the older girl.
Furthermore, after he killed Smith, he locked the older girl in the trunk of his car and then left her in a wooded area when he got a flat tire. She was able to run to a gas station as well as contact the police.
-year-old girl and raped a 10-year-old in 1976. His scheduled execution was stopped on Tuesday.){kind=link}